For more information see the School Board Presentation:
Proposed District Technology Training Plan for the Howard County Public School System
The Howard County School System, A Review of Our District
The Howard County Public School System is a large district with a very diverse population of students and teachers. Currently there are over 50,000 students enrolled in the county’s 74 schools (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b.). Our county has been committed to providing all students with an excellent education while preparing our students for [[#|college and career]] readiness (Howard County Public School System, n.d.). We have an outstanding staff of approximately 8,000 employees, and about 4,730 teachers. These staff members have done an excellent job of putting into practice our mission statement “to ensure excellence in teaching and learning so that each student will participate responsibly in a diverse and changing world” (Howard County Public School System, n.d.), but in order to continue this mission we need to address our county’s technology training initiatives.
In order to ensure that our students continue to be successful in their future [[#|careers]] we need provide teachers with access to and training in technologies so they can provide meaningful and relevant technology experiences for their students. To do this we first need to create a technology training plan that will provide our teachers with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful. The county last developed a training plan in 2008 (Howard County Public School System, 2008) that will be concluding at the end of the current school year, thus the time has come to replace it with a more detailed plan that outlines specifically what type of professional development training the county will provide to teachers and staff. The goal of this plan is to provide an outline of what workshops and courses should be offered to teachers based on the county’s current needs.
Needs Assessment
In order to start compiling data on the most pressing technology needs, teachers are facing a [[#|survey]] was created to collect feedback from three separate groups teachers, administrators and parents. The surveys will collect data about the technology available in schools and classrooms and what percentage of that technology is actually used. In addition, the surveys will ask the stakeholders for their opinions on what technology would be most useful for teaching their subject and grade level. The survey can be found here.
Additionally, a staff member from the Howard County Technology Department was interviewed to see what teachers needed in terms of technology training. Mr. Scribner, a computer technician, who works at eight of the county’s schools agreed to answer several questions regarding what he thought was the most pressing need that he saw with the teachers he observed. His major concerns were that many of the teachers seemed to struggle with using the county’s many software programs and that some weren’t even aware of all the programs that were available for use (Langan, 2013). As a result of this conversation it was determined that, the other school technicians that work with the teachers should be interviewed to see what their concerns are. Additionally, it is suggested that the workshops focus on showing teachers how to use these programs to improve their instruction. Finally, it is recommended that the board require all classroom teachers to attend at least one content specific workshop a year and make this a part of their yearly evaluations. To encourage this further the county will provide workshop wages to all attendees.
Goals of the District Technology Training Plan
Teachers and school staff will become aware of the technologies available to them in the district and will be able to incorporate them in their classrooms.
Teachers and school staff will create a variety of ready to use materials in their workshops that they can put into immediate use in their classrooms.
Teachers and school staff will be able to navigate the software available and use it actively in instruction as well as to communicate with parents and track student performance information.
Teachers and school staff will work collaboratively with grade level and content teams to create resources and lesson plans using the technology currently available.
Audience
The primary audience for these workshops will be classroom teachers. By focusing on the teachers instruction can be improved at the classroom level. Additionally, it is hoped that the teachers who attend the workshops will share what they have learned with other staff members in the building. The Teachers in Howard County average 13 years of teaching experience (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b), this is very beneficial because the average teachers will have experience with classroom management and a wide variety of students and their learning needs. The majority of the teachers are highly educated, 72% have a master’s degree or above (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b) and last year alone fifteen teachers earned their National Board Certification (Howard County Public School System, 2012.a). In terms of technology, all of our classroom teachers are supplied with a Macbook laptop computer as well as an LCD projector and document camera and have access to at least one school computer lab and several laptop carts at each school (Langan, 2013). Additionally, the county averages a ratio of one computer to ever fourteen students, and 99% of the classrooms have wireless internet access (Howard County Public School System, 2012.a).
Content Analysis and Workshop Descriptions
This section will outline the proposed workshops that will benefit the majority of the teachers. The workshops will be offered as weeklong sessions in the summer and as one or two-day sessions that take place throughout the year during professional development days. Due to the wide range of staff levels and technical skills, we will offer a variety of sessions that are tailored not only to the grade and/or content area but also to the individual’s skill levels. These workshops will focus on the current technologies available in all of the schools and will help provide teachers with supplemental materials they can implement immediately in the classroom.
Each workshop participant will be asked to complete a brief survey when they [[#|register]] for the workshops about their familiarity with the technology involved. This will allow the workshops to be tailored to the various ability levels of the participants. An example survey is available here. It is important to note that the workshops listed here do not include all of the workshops that are needed; more will be added based on the results of the survey described in the needs assessment. After the survey results have been compiled, an addendum will be submitted to the board outlining the additional trainings requested by the teachers.
Instructional Strategies
All of the workshops will be set up so that the teachers receive hands-on training in the various technologies. There will always be an initial presentation sharing some of the features of the technology and examples of how they can be applied in the classroom. Following that teachers will have a chance to work in content teams to practice using the software and creating lessons that are based on their curriculum. The goal of each workshop will be that teachers take part in creating at least one lesson plan, unit, or activity that they can immediately take and put into practice in the classroom. Additionally, a separate section will be established on the county’s intranet, an internal network that allows teachers to share information, where teacher created materials can be stored and shared. Finally, supplemental activities such as screen-casts, tutorials, videos, podcasts and examples from other teachers will be added to the Intranet along with an FAQ and help section to provide teachers with a little more support.
Proposed Workshop Descriptions
Kidspiration and Pixie for K-5 Teachers: focusing on its application in English Language Arts
This will be a short training during a professional development day. The workshop will focus specifically on how to incorporate these two programs in a K-5 English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. All teachers will be asked to bring their laptops and will work in grade level teams to create their own concept map and pixie presentation. Finally, the groups will be divided, so they are with teachers from different grades where they will use the software to create a review of what they learned from the workshop as a team and present it to the large group. Because the software is easy to use even for technically unskilled individuals, teachers of all ability levels should be able to participate fully in the lesson. Additionally, there will be staff from the office of instructional technology available to assist.
Using Macintosh products in high school: making learning fun for all ages!
This will actually be a series of workshops that focuses on the use of Macintosh products such as: iMovie, garage band, comic life, and Keynote in the high school classrooms. This workshop will be set up in half-day sessions with a morning session available for beginners and an afternoon session offered to more experienced users. It is set up this way so that if the teachers that felt they needed to sign up for the beginner class would have the opportunity to attend the more in-depth session in the afternoon if they felt comfortable.
The participants in the workshop will be grouped by content area. Presenters will share examples of some of the possibilities of how to use this software in the classroom. The Teachers will then work in content and grade level groups to familiarize themselves with the software and create lessons they can use with their students. The goal will be that everyone walks out of the workshop with at least one lesson they helped create that can be used in their classroom. Additionally, all the teachers provide copies of the lessons they created which will be shared on the county’s document repository so others from the group and across the county can assess them.
Microsoft Office: Not Just a Word Processor!
This workshop will help teachers to use the [[#|Microsoft office]] products more effectively in the classroom. This workshop will take place in several half-day sessions that are spread out throughout the year to allow users time to practice using these programs in their classrooms and bring questions and ideas back to their groups. The workshops will be offered at two different levels, one for less tech savvy teachers and more technically advanced teachers. The less technically adept users will focus on using programs like Excel and PowerPoint to enhance their teaching. These teachers will create lesson plans simply using this software in an effective manner. The more advanced class will be focusing on how to use these programs to differentiate their lessons and create content for their classes. Participants will create lessons and presentations that are geared to different levels of learners. Both groups will compile the lessons they create to be shared with other teachers. Additionally, they will complete a reflection between each session on how they have used what they learned and what further questions they still have.
Google Apps in HCPSS
This weeklong workshop will focus on using the new Howard County Google Apps for Educators. This is a new feature for most of our teachers and is set up so that every user in the county with a computer login will be automatically set up with a Google account. This workshop will focus on how teachers can use the different features of the Google Apps with their students. The session will be offered in three sessions: elementary, middle and high school. Each session will have teachers divided into content and grade level teams so that they can work with their colleagues to create lessons and resources that they will share with each other through their Google accounts. Links to all the resources that the teachers created in the workshop will be posted online; in addition, the website will contain an FAQ page and links to screen casts to help teachers throughout the year.
iPads are not toys, but they can still make learning fun!
This workshop will be offered in smaller sessions, at the individual schools that have iPad carts. Due to the fact that not all the schools have this technology yet these will be smaller workshops at the individual schools. The workshops will occur during professional development days and will be content specific. The goal will be to familiarize teachers with the specific apps that the county has purchased and made available on the iPads. Teachers will be trained using the actual iPads that their students use. Each group will have the opportunity to explore content specific Apps that they can use with their students.
School leaders and data gathering
This workshop will be offered to school administrative staff, ITLs and team leaders. The workshop will focus on how to use programs like Aspen and other data collection programs to gather and analyze student data. The workshop will provide information and articles on how and why data should be used to drive their school’s instruction. This group of school leaders will be expected to create a presentation that they can share with the teachers in their building regarding student data.
Paraeducators using assistive technology
This workshop will be offered to paraeducators in the county and will focus on how to use assistive technology to modify content. Most of the paraeducators in the county work directly with the special education students population. As such, they should be able to modify the classroom instruction to meet the needs of their individual students. This workshop will give the paraeducators practice using programs like Kurzweil, PowerPoint and text-to-speech software to modify lessons. The paraeducators will be asked to bring lessons from the teachers that they work with to the workshop. These will be used as a basis for the workshop; the class will start by sharing ideas and working together to modify the material. They will then work in small groups on their individual lessons to help one another modify the materials.
Instructional Strategies
All of the workshops will focus on providing teachers with hand-on learning opportunities that directly involve them in the technology they will be using with their students. The presenters will use a variety of activities including PowerPoint presentations, screen casts, small group discussions and presentations from the teachers themselves. The instructors will act mainly as a guide first showing the teachers some examples of the various technologies related to the teachers specific subjects and grade levels, using PowerPoint’s and screen casts and first hand examples. The instructors will help walk the class through how to create their own activities by not only showing the class but also directly involving them in the process. They will then provide time for the participants to work in small content and grade specific teams to develop their own lessons using the technology. The groups will share what they learned with the rest of the workshop participants and engage in dialogues to improve their skills. The participants will each create something they can apply directly to their classroom, in addition each member will create their own wiki which will contain all the resources that they created throughout the workshop. The instructor will observe the small groups and provide support and assistance as needed. All the resources created in these workshops will also be available to the participating teachers on the class wiki.
Evaluation of Overall Technology Plan
At the end of each workshop, the participants will fill out an evaluation reflecting on how useful the evaluation was and the impact they think it will have on their classroom teaching. In addition, a countywide survey will be sent out at the end of each year asking teachers to evaluate the training process as a whole. The survey will ask teachers if they need further training in the technologies discussed and how their technology training needs have changed since the previous year. This data will help improve the overall workshops and assess if the information the teachers learned in the workshops has been implemented within their classroom.
The office of instructional technology will also be responsible for conducting observations of the presenters and providing feedback on the workshops to the presenters. The workshop presenters will also be asked to follow up with some of the teachers and observe lessons where the teachers have implemented the technologies they learned into practice with their students. Finally, this plan will be looked at yearly and workshops will be revised based on staff responses to the workshops and current technology training needs.
References
Howard County Public School System. (2012a). 2011-2012 annual report. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/2012ar.pdf
Howard County Public School System. (n.d.a). About us. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/
Howard County Public School System. (2012b). Howard county public school system profile. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/profile.pdf.
Howard County Public School System. (2008). Howard county public school system technology plan 2008-2013. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/plan_technology.pdf
Howard County Public School System. (n.d.b). Howard county public school system [website]. Retrieved from http://www.hcpss.org/
Langan, M. (2013, March, 8). A personal interview with J. Scribner. Laurel, Maryland.
This page will review the Howard County's DTTP
For more information see the School Board Presentation:
Proposed District Technology Training Plan for the Howard County Public School System
The Howard County School System, A Review of Our District
The Howard County Public School System is a large district with a very diverse population of students and teachers. Currently there are over 50,000 students enrolled in the county’s 74 schools (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b.). Our county has been committed to providing all students with an excellent education while preparing our students for [[#|college and career]] readiness (Howard County Public School System, n.d.). We have an outstanding staff of approximately 8,000 employees, and about 4,730 teachers. These staff members have done an excellent job of putting into practice our mission statement “to ensure excellence in teaching and learning so that each student will participate responsibly in a diverse and changing world” (Howard County Public School System, n.d.), but in order to continue this mission we need to address our county’s technology training initiatives.
In order to ensure that our students continue to be successful in their future [[#|careers]] we need provide teachers with access to and training in technologies so they can provide meaningful and relevant technology experiences for their students. To do this we first need to create a technology training plan that will provide our teachers with the tools and knowledge they need to be successful. The county last developed a training plan in 2008 (Howard County Public School System, 2008) that will be concluding at the end of the current school year, thus the time has come to replace it with a more detailed plan that outlines specifically what type of professional development training the county will provide to teachers and staff. The goal of this plan is to provide an outline of what workshops and courses should be offered to teachers based on the county’s current needs.
Needs Assessment
In order to start compiling data on the most pressing technology needs, teachers are facing a [[#|survey]] was created to collect feedback from three separate groups teachers, administrators and parents. The surveys will collect data about the technology available in schools and classrooms and what percentage of that technology is actually used. In addition, the surveys will ask the stakeholders for their opinions on what technology would be most useful for teaching their subject and grade level. The survey can be found here.
Additionally, a staff member from the Howard County Technology Department was interviewed to see what teachers needed in terms of technology training. Mr. Scribner, a computer technician, who works at eight of the county’s schools agreed to answer several questions regarding what he thought was the most pressing need that he saw with the teachers he observed. His major concerns were that many of the teachers seemed to struggle with using the county’s many software programs and that some weren’t even aware of all the programs that were available for use (Langan, 2013). As a result of this conversation it was determined that, the other school technicians that work with the teachers should be interviewed to see what their concerns are. Additionally, it is suggested that the workshops focus on showing teachers how to use these programs to improve their instruction. Finally, it is recommended that the board require all classroom teachers to attend at least one content specific workshop a year and make this a part of their yearly evaluations. To encourage this further the county will provide workshop wages to all attendees.
Goals of the District Technology Training Plan
Audience
The primary audience for these workshops will be classroom teachers. By focusing on the teachers instruction can be improved at the classroom level. Additionally, it is hoped that the teachers who attend the workshops will share what they have learned with other staff members in the building. The Teachers in Howard County average 13 years of teaching experience (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b), this is very beneficial because the average teachers will have experience with classroom management and a wide variety of students and their learning needs. The majority of the teachers are highly educated, 72% have a master’s degree or above (Howard County Public School System, 2012.b) and last year alone fifteen teachers earned their National Board Certification (Howard County Public School System, 2012.a). In terms of technology, all of our classroom teachers are supplied with a Macbook laptop computer as well as an LCD projector and document camera and have access to at least one school computer lab and several laptop carts at each school (Langan, 2013). Additionally, the county averages a ratio of one computer to ever fourteen students, and 99% of the classrooms have wireless internet access (Howard County Public School System, 2012.a).
Content Analysis and Workshop Descriptions
This section will outline the proposed workshops that will benefit the majority of the teachers. The workshops will be offered as weeklong sessions in the summer and as one or two-day sessions that take place throughout the year during professional development days. Due to the wide range of staff levels and technical skills, we will offer a variety of sessions that are tailored not only to the grade and/or content area but also to the individual’s skill levels. These workshops will focus on the current technologies available in all of the schools and will help provide teachers with supplemental materials they can implement immediately in the classroom.
Each workshop participant will be asked to complete a brief survey when they [[#|register]] for the workshops about their familiarity with the technology involved. This will allow the workshops to be tailored to the various ability levels of the participants. An example survey is available here. It is important to note that the workshops listed here do not include all of the workshops that are needed; more will be added based on the results of the survey described in the needs assessment. After the survey results have been compiled, an addendum will be submitted to the board outlining the additional trainings requested by the teachers.
Instructional Strategies
All of the workshops will be set up so that the teachers receive hands-on training in the various technologies. There will always be an initial presentation sharing some of the features of the technology and examples of how they can be applied in the classroom. Following that teachers will have a chance to work in content teams to practice using the software and creating lessons that are based on their curriculum. The goal of each workshop will be that teachers take part in creating at least one lesson plan, unit, or activity that they can immediately take and put into practice in the classroom. Additionally, a separate section will be established on the county’s intranet, an internal network that allows teachers to share information, where teacher created materials can be stored and shared. Finally, supplemental activities such as screen-casts, tutorials, videos, podcasts and examples from other teachers will be added to the Intranet along with an FAQ and help section to provide teachers with a little more support.
Proposed Workshop Descriptions
Kidspiration and Pixie for K-5 Teachers: focusing on its application in English Language Arts
This will be a short training during a professional development day. The workshop will focus specifically on how to incorporate these two programs in a K-5 English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. All teachers will be asked to bring their laptops and will work in grade level teams to create their own concept map and pixie presentation. Finally, the groups will be divided, so they are with teachers from different grades where they will use the software to create a review of what they learned from the workshop as a team and present it to the large group. Because the software is easy to use even for technically unskilled individuals, teachers of all ability levels should be able to participate fully in the lesson. Additionally, there will be staff from the office of instructional technology available to assist.
Using Macintosh products in high school: making learning fun for all ages!
This will actually be a series of workshops that focuses on the use of Macintosh products such as: iMovie, garage band, comic life, and Keynote in the high school classrooms. This workshop will be set up in half-day sessions with a morning session available for beginners and an afternoon session offered to more experienced users. It is set up this way so that if the teachers that felt they needed to sign up for the beginner class would have the opportunity to attend the more in-depth session in the afternoon if they felt comfortable.
The participants in the workshop will be grouped by content area. Presenters will share examples of some of the possibilities of how to use this software in the classroom. The Teachers will then work in content and grade level groups to familiarize themselves with the software and create lessons they can use with their students. The goal will be that everyone walks out of the workshop with at least one lesson they helped create that can be used in their classroom. Additionally, all the teachers provide copies of the lessons they created which will be shared on the county’s document repository so others from the group and across the county can assess them.
Microsoft Office: Not Just a Word Processor!
This workshop will help teachers to use the [[#|Microsoft office]] products more effectively in the classroom. This workshop will take place in several half-day sessions that are spread out throughout the year to allow users time to practice using these programs in their classrooms and bring questions and ideas back to their groups. The workshops will be offered at two different levels, one for less tech savvy teachers and more technically advanced teachers. The less technically adept users will focus on using programs like Excel and PowerPoint to enhance their teaching. These teachers will create lesson plans simply using this software in an effective manner. The more advanced class will be focusing on how to use these programs to differentiate their lessons and create content for their classes. Participants will create lessons and presentations that are geared to different levels of learners. Both groups will compile the lessons they create to be shared with other teachers. Additionally, they will complete a reflection between each session on how they have used what they learned and what further questions they still have.
Google Apps in HCPSS
This weeklong workshop will focus on using the new Howard County Google Apps for Educators. This is a new feature for most of our teachers and is set up so that every user in the county with a computer login will be automatically set up with a Google account. This workshop will focus on how teachers can use the different features of the Google Apps with their students. The session will be offered in three sessions: elementary, middle and high school. Each session will have teachers divided into content and grade level teams so that they can work with their colleagues to create lessons and resources that they will share with each other through their Google accounts. Links to all the resources that the teachers created in the workshop will be posted online; in addition, the website will contain an FAQ page and links to screen casts to help teachers throughout the year.
iPads are not toys, but they can still make learning fun!
This workshop will be offered in smaller sessions, at the individual schools that have iPad carts. Due to the fact that not all the schools have this technology yet these will be smaller workshops at the individual schools. The workshops will occur during professional development days and will be content specific. The goal will be to familiarize teachers with the specific apps that the county has purchased and made available on the iPads. Teachers will be trained using the actual iPads that their students use. Each group will have the opportunity to explore content specific Apps that they can use with their students.
School leaders and data gathering
This workshop will be offered to school administrative staff, ITLs and team leaders. The workshop will focus on how to use programs like Aspen and other data collection programs to gather and analyze student data. The workshop will provide information and articles on how and why data should be used to drive their school’s instruction. This group of school leaders will be expected to create a presentation that they can share with the teachers in their building regarding student data.
Paraeducators using assistive technology
This workshop will be offered to paraeducators in the county and will focus on how to use assistive technology to modify content. Most of the paraeducators in the county work directly with the special education students population. As such, they should be able to modify the classroom instruction to meet the needs of their individual students. This workshop will give the paraeducators practice using programs like Kurzweil, PowerPoint and text-to-speech software to modify lessons. The paraeducators will be asked to bring lessons from the teachers that they work with to the workshop. These will be used as a basis for the workshop; the class will start by sharing ideas and working together to modify the material. They will then work in small groups on their individual lessons to help one another modify the materials.
Instructional Strategies
All of the workshops will focus on providing teachers with hand-on learning opportunities that directly involve them in the technology they will be using with their students. The presenters will use a variety of activities including PowerPoint presentations, screen casts, small group discussions and presentations from the teachers themselves. The instructors will act mainly as a guide first showing the teachers some examples of the various technologies related to the teachers specific subjects and grade levels, using PowerPoint’s and screen casts and first hand examples. The instructors will help walk the class through how to create their own activities by not only showing the class but also directly involving them in the process. They will then provide time for the participants to work in small content and grade specific teams to develop their own lessons using the technology. The groups will share what they learned with the rest of the workshop participants and engage in dialogues to improve their skills. The participants will each create something they can apply directly to their classroom, in addition each member will create their own wiki which will contain all the resources that they created throughout the workshop. The instructor will observe the small groups and provide support and assistance as needed. All the resources created in these workshops will also be available to the participating teachers on the class wiki.
Evaluation of Overall Technology Plan
At the end of each workshop, the participants will fill out an evaluation reflecting on how useful the evaluation was and the impact they think it will have on their classroom teaching. In addition, a countywide survey will be sent out at the end of each year asking teachers to evaluate the training process as a whole. The survey will ask teachers if they need further training in the technologies discussed and how their technology training needs have changed since the previous year. This data will help improve the overall workshops and assess if the information the teachers learned in the workshops has been implemented within their classroom.
The office of instructional technology will also be responsible for conducting observations of the presenters and providing feedback on the workshops to the presenters. The workshop presenters will also be asked to follow up with some of the teachers and observe lessons where the teachers have implemented the technologies they learned into practice with their students. Finally, this plan will be looked at yearly and workshops will be revised based on staff responses to the workshops and current technology training needs.
References
Howard County Public School System. (2012a). 2011-2012 annual report. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/2012ar.pdf
Howard County Public School System. (n.d.a). About us. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/
Howard County Public School System. (2012b). Howard county public school system profile. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/profile.pdf.
Howard County Public School System. (2008). Howard county public school system technology plan 2008-2013. Retrieved from: http://www.hcpss.org/aboutus/plan_technology.pdf
Howard County Public School System. (n.d.b). Howard county public school system [website]. Retrieved from http://www.hcpss.org/
Langan, M. (2013, March, 8). A personal interview with J. Scribner. Laurel, Maryland.